Lena Dunham has apologised for calling out a magazine for allegedly Photoshopping an image of her.On Tuesday, the Girls star posted a picture on Instagram of the Tentaciones front cover, starring herself, along with a caption explaining why she was unhappy with the image.
"Oh hello El Pais! I am genuinely honored to be on your cover and so happy you licensed a pic by @ruvenafanador, who always makes me feel gorgeous," she wrote. "BUT this is NOT what my body has ever looked like or will ever look like- the magazine has done more than the average photoshop. So if you're into what I do, why not be honest with your readers? Much love, Lena. "But the Spanish magazine was quick to respond, penning an open letter to the actress. "Of course, we are aware that any media outlet needs to be responsible for what it publishes, but this photo was previously approved by the agency, the photographer and your publicist ... we used the original that they sent us without applying any kind of retouching," they wrote. "Those who are familiar with and follow our magazine will know that we do not use Photoshop nor other digital tools to change the physical appearance of our cover stars, nor in the features to be found inside. On this occasion, the only thing we did was to crop the image to adapt it to the format of our front page.”It compared its cover to the image of Dunham as she had appeared in Entertainment Weekly: "As you can see, the image is exactly the same.”They concluded by adding they "are delighted to see that you still have your rebellious spirit," before offering Lena a free subscription – "so that you can see for yourself that we like to reflect things the way that they really are."
Lena replied by thanking the magazine for their response and for being "so good-natured about my request for accuracy".She acknowledged that her own team had signed off on the photo, and accepted that Tentaciones hadn't doctored the image, but explained her reasoning. "It's a weird feeling to see a photo and not know if it's your own body anymore (and I'm pretty sure that will never be my thigh width but I honestly can't tell what's been slimmed and what hasn't.)," she wrote. "I'm not blaming anyone (y'know, except society at large.) I have a long and complicated history with retouching. I wanna live in this wild world and play the game and get my work seen, and I also want to be honest about who I am and what I stand for. Maybe it's turning 30. Maybe it's seeing my candidate of choice get bashed as much for having a normal woman's body as she is for her policies. Maybe it's getting sick and realizing ALL that matters is that this body work, not that it be milky white and slim. "But I want something different now. Thanks for helping me figure that out and sorry to make you the problem, you cool Spanish magazine you. Time to get to the bottom of this in a bigger way. Time to walk the talk. With endless love, Lena PS I'd love the Tentaciones subscription I was offered!"
Phew! You still with us?! Drama!